Dictionary

despoiler en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English dispoyler, dispoylere, equivalent to despoil + -er.

Meanings

1. One who despoils; one who strips by force; a plunderer.
   • A wild and unreasoning craving for vengeance took possession of Ferris’s soul. Passing by the real despoiler of Angela’s peace, it clamoured like an evil spirit against the man from whom he had received benefits, which his distorted imagination construed into insults. 1881, Rosa Campbell Praed, chapter 30, in Policy and Passion:
   • 1985, Stephen Jay Gould, The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History, New York: Norton, 1987, Chapter 1, Other despoilers of our natural heritage killed bison with even greater abandon, removed the tongue only (considered a great delicacy in some quarters), and left the rest of the carcass to rot.
   • […] he, who had been the untamable despoiler of their daughters, and thief of their women, their walking prince of darkness! 1953, James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, →OCLC, part 2 (The Prayers of the Saints):

Forms